Sony Ericsson K800i won't turn on, how to rescue photos?

[Mizz56]

Hi! So my dads old sony ericsson phone with lots of old holiday photos wont turn on and we're not sure what to do. When the charger is plugged in a red light at the bottom sometimes stays on for a few minutes or simply flashes for a few seconds then stays off but it ultimately still doesn't turn on. We've bought a new charger and battery and nothing has helped to turn it on so far. Ive read online that the red blinking indicates either a battery problem or about updating/flashing the firmware or a corrupted erom? ive also seen some things about a wotanserver but im not sure what that is. A lot of other forums with this problem are more 10 years old so any helpful links and advice is outdated. Could somebody please help my dad really wants to get these old family photos and videos from the phone and to stop worrying about them. Thank you.

[lordsmurf]

The issue you describe is usually a battery-related problem, and a new battery/charger often does the trick.

BTW, don't assume the "new" battery was any good, you might try to source another one from elsewhere one more time. Just be sure wherever you get it from has a good return policy. You're probably using eBay or Amazon, correct? For something this old, I'd assume so.

If it really is an issue with firmware, corrupted ROM, etc -- and those photos actually matter -- then I'd advise not messing with it on your own. Too much can go wrong, wipe the phone.

And for that matter, hopefully the data is still there. Was this phone recently still in use, or stuck in a drawer for the past decade?

You're now entering the realm of recovery. Not something you can DIY.

Of all the operations out there, I'd strongly consider Drive Savers:
https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/...s-and-tablets/
Call them, see what it would cost to recover.
Their site mentions "smart phones", but then lists many non-smart phone manufacturers, including Sony:
https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/...urer-approved/
And an interesting tour of their facility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNUsoangGFs

Kroll Ontrack is our usual suggestion for recovery, but they don't work on phones like Drive Savers does. We had to send a HDD to Ontrack about 8 years ago, and it was around $1000 for the recovered files dumped onto a new drive. The success rate was about 99%, so entirely worth it to us. $1k was a tough pill to swallow, but also made us double down on RAID and backups even more.

Hopefully your phone wouldn't cost anywhere near as much, but it won't be free or cheap. There will be some cost, but sometimes memories matter more than dollars. It'll also serve as a lesson: backup! Thankfully modern Android/iOS can connect to built-in instant cloud backups, devices of 2018 (and beyond) aren't like devices of 2006.

And please do reply back to this thread, let us know what you've done, and if you've had success. I

[Mizz56]

Thanks for the reply ill try to get another battery soon and thank you for the suggested repairers. My dad told me when he gave it to me that he had been trying to backup the photos (he didnt say how far he got) when it turned off and even though he charged it it still didnt come on. That was about 2/3 years ago so i assume it was being used by him for a while before this all happened. Also im from the UK so contacting these guys for a repair might be difficult i could try finding people as reliable and successful here in england as well. Hoepfully ill see some results soon thanks again

[lordsmurf]

UK doesn't matter, Drive Savers will surely accept orders for recovery worldwide. Contact them.
The "local solution" is rarely the best solution, for any task.

[ovaltech]

Any leads so far? Please update I have same issue as the OP. Did local solution guys helped you?